Sir Christopher Lee dies at 93

This year has seen a lot of influential and screen legends pass away today was the end of an era as horror icon Sir Christopher Lee dies at 93. Sir Christopher Lee, the screen legend whose career took him from Hammer horror movies to Sci Fi cult classic Star Wars, book to blockbuster trilogy Lord of the Rings and a role as one of the great Bond villains.

The actor died at 8.30am on Sunday at London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in company of his family, suffering with respiratory problems and heart failure over three weeks.

The actor first achieved fame as a Hammer Horror star in the 1950s then soared up from his role in Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, but his fame really kicked in the last 15 years of his career with mainstream blockbusters where he was introduced to a new generation of fans. This included Tim Burton films including Alice in Wonderland and Sleepy Hollow.

He married his wife, Birgit, known as Gitte, in 1961 and they had a daughter, Christina. They were married for 50 years, Lady Lee delayed news of his death so all close family could be informed.

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^_^ Aisha Anime

Okinawa Day 2014

A friend of mine asked me if I was free 21st June to go to Okinawa day. this was something I had never heard of of. Okinawa is a prefecture made up of thousands of islands, south of Kyushu. The largest Island is named Okinawa Shima, or Okinawa Island, the mission of Okinawa Association U.K and London Okinawa Sanshinkai who organise the event is to promote Okinawan culture further in the U.K in order to strengthen our existing relationship between the U.K and Okinawa.

This event has occurred annually since 2009 in the Uk and they hope to strengthen the relationship between the UK and Okinawa through the annual events. They also encourage more and more U.K audiences to participate in future Okinawa related events and to create an Okinawa cultural hub in the UK. 

This particular Okinawa day is before the 23rd June which is a memorial day in Okinawa to commemorate the final battle day where more than 200.000 lives were lost at the end of WWll. 

Okinawa Day was held outside at Spittlefield market in London to celebrate Okinawan culture with a variety of events. They demonstrate the spirit of Uta-no-hi (A day of Songs) started in Okinawa in 2001 by BEGIN, a popular blues band. Uta-no-hi's purpose is to appreciate and celebrate Uta (Songs) which bring joy to their lives as well as to help overcome the hardships of life. 

We had a great demonstration of Okinawan dancing with drummers and they even did a workshop to show audience members how to do the dance and drum.It was great to see a huge range of people in the audience from young children to the older generation coming to learn and immerse themselves in the culture

So we had a variety of singers perform folk songs, Jpop songs and had a great ensemble with Hide the Guitar player with Hibiki the top Shamishen player in the UK and Akari singing her harmonious melodies.

We also had some live Karete demonstrations which showed stances with different weapons and also a display of strength with the demonstrators withstanding bamboo sticks.

Hide, Akari and Hibiki

Amongst the entertainment they also had delicious food on sale including Nice Ice - perfect for the hot weather, Taponyaki (octopus balls) and even a Tea ceremony demonstration for people to participate it. 

Alongside the food they had lots of stalls selling merchandise including key rings, fans, plushes, flower headbands and a few travel agents including Japan Journey's offering bespoke holidays to suit your interests at reasonable prices. Why not indulge in a manga orientated tour ? Go tohttp://www.japanjourneys.co.uk/site/ for more information on planning your perfect Japanese holiday.

Poppy Daisy Handmade Flower Headbands 

Poppy Daisy Handmade Flower Headbands happened to have been set up in the area where lots of ladies and children jumped at the chance to adorn their heads in flowers. She sold flower headbands, clips anything to do with flowers. Selling them for six years, the owner is from Sweden, where it is traditional to use flowers in celebrations. Buy some of her creations online from poppydaisy.com  as well as popping into Spittlefield market on a Saturday.

It was a great family day out and entry was free!

~Aisha Anime ~

For more photos of the event go here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.658360670885051.1073741836.554115554642897&type=3

For more information on the organisations involved or the day itself go to:

http://www.okinawaday.org.uk/

London MCM Expo May 2015 | Photo Opportunities!

You sir are under arrest !

SO on my journey battling against the many attendees to all the free swag at this May's MCM London Expo - photo opportunities were rife - you just had to know where you were going ! First stop at the police car stand where you had authentic police cars and bikes protected by cosplay clad officers doing photo shoots. Sponsored or not - it looked pretty cool.

Everybody loves the CEX tentacle toilet seat ! Feel free to take a photo and the photos with the top three like scores won game vouchers and and on top first prize winner(s) got a go pro camera. Not too shabby at all.

Konami Stand

Konami UK decided to set up a great bit of advertising for Metal Gear Solid bike The Phantom Pain, where initially hidden in a box, Later unveiled the bike in all it's glory for attendees to take photos on and get them later emailed or via facebook. MC Karim made sure to accost every cosplayer in sight to get a shot by pro photographer Ace.

Pixe pop up background was back in promotion of Jurassic World, where you think of a good slogan to put in your speech bubble and again for the photo with the most facebook likes you receive a prize and social media stardom.

It' seemed everywhere me and my team wondered we were bumping into Minions ! We managed to follow them to their own barriered area for photos with the crew. Kids to adults queued excitedly to meet these yellow superstars.

Even though you couldn't take photos of the new game, there were ample areas for photos including by the Batmobile but sadly my photo hasn't come through yet so please bask at the glory of Nightwing!

Check out my guns #saintsrow XD

Syfy fan cam !

I managed to try the Syfy Fan Cam at the recent LSCC in cosplay but decided I wanted to go casual and have some fun so we all suited up and some how a shark got involved, even though the queuing was by far the longest it was totally worth the wait.

Last and not least my absolutely favourite photos were in the Hello Kitty Photobooth located in Hello Kitty Land where you could charge your phones, get your nails done, get free transfer tattoos and hair chalk while chilling in the peaceful ambiance.

Hope you captured the moment on a few or all of the above and had a thrilling time at MCM Expo, this has to be the best to date for me.

For more news on Japanese culture, anime, games, events and cosplay follow me on Twitter and Facebook ^_^ Aisha Anime